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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the significance of medicinal plants and functional foods, which are beneficial plants, in bolstering the human body's immune system. These plants play a crucial role in the production of therapeutics for various illnesses, including transmissible, non-transmissible, and metabolic diseases. Medicinal plants from different parts of the world contain various types of secondary metabolites that have the ability to directly and indirectly enhance human health. The identification, diversity, cultivation, and conservation of these rare plant resources is essential for safeguarding human life from various dangers.

This Special Issue on “Medicinal Plants and Industrial Crops: Phytochemistry and Metabolic Diseases II” will focus on cutting-edge research related to medicinal plants, as well as the cultivation and processing of herbal drugs, for example, in conjunction with geographical information system technology. Articles allied to the identification and cultivation of various medicinal plants, extraction techniques for metabolites, and qualitative and quantitative techniques for determining their composition and pharmacological profile are invited from the researchers in different fields from all over the world. Original experimental papers, theoretical uses of rare plant resources, as well as reviews, communications, reports, and short notes on medicinal plant-based research topics are invited to contribute to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Takashi Watanabe
Prof. Dr. Mikako Fujita
Dr. Yukio Nagano
Dr. Raju Aedla
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

ecological biochemistry
plant chemistry
molecular biology and genetics
structure and bioactivities of phytochemicals
molecular genetics and genomics
protein biochemistry and proteomics
chemistry and bioactive products
medicinal plants for high bio-mass yield and phytochemical content
medicinal plants and diseases
ecological and geographical information system

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

17 pages, 3815 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Environmental Factor Effects on the Polyphenol and Flavonoid Content in the Leaves of Chrysanthemum indicum L. and Its Habitat Suitability Prediction Mapping

by Rei Uranishi, Raju Aedla, Doaa H. M. Alsaadi, Dongxing Wang, Ken Kusakari, Hirotaka Osaki, Koji Sugimura and Takashi Watanabe

Molecules 2024, 29(5), 927; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29050927 - 20 Feb 2024

Viewed by 620

Abstract

The leaves of Chrysanthemum indicum L. are known to have various bioactive compounds; however, industrial use is extremely limited. To overcome this situation by producing high-quality leaves with high bioactive content, this study examined the environmental factors affecting the phytochemical content and antioxidant activity using C. indicum leaves collected from 22 sites in Kochi Prefecture, Japan. Total phenolic and flavonoid content in the dry leaves ranged between 15.0 and 64.1 (mg gallic acid g⁻¹) and 2.3 and 11.4 (mg quercetin g⁻¹), while the antioxidant activity (EC₅₀) of the 50% ethanol extracts ranged between 28.0 and 123.2 (µg mL⁻¹) in 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay. Among the identified compounds, chlorogenic acid and 1,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid were the main constituents in C. indicum leaves. The antioxidant activity demonstrated a positive correlation with 1,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid (R² = 0.62) and 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid (R² = 0.77). The content of chlorogenic acid and dicaffeoylquinic acid isomers varied significantly according to the effects of exchangeable magnesium, cation exchange capacity, annual temperature, and precipitation, based on analysis of variance. The habitat suitability map using the geographical information system and the MaxEnt model predicted very high and high regions, comprising 3.2% and 10.1% of the total area, respectively. These findings could be used in future cultivation to produce high-quality leaves of C. indicum. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Medicinal Plants and Industrial Crops: Phytochemistry and Metabolic Diseases II)

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